Commentary : Bo Rides Into Dirty Town on White Horse

For a long time now, college athletics have appeared to be out of control.

From every corner of the country there seems to have been a steady string of stories about college athletes involved in illegal drugs and worse (rape, assault with a deadly weapon), cheating scandals, recruiting violations, coaches breaking rules. It’s enough to make you sick.

These things have become so common that they no longer rate premium space in the sports section.

Stories on the current trial of two sports agents in Chicago have been relegated to an inside page, even though they concern juicy items like illegal payments to college athletes and threats that mob guys would break the legs of players who did not return money.

People shrug at this stuff now.

And these things have been happening in the college ranks, where, theoretically, we are training leaders of the next generation.

Well, the knight in shining armor rode into town this week.

Michigan’s Bo Schembechler is no newcomer to college sports. He has been on the scene seemingly forever.

Schembechler is Michigan’s football coach and athletic director. It was in his role as athletic director that he became a new hero to some disenchanted fans.

Schembechler’s basketball coach, Bill Frieder, announced two days before Michigan’s first game in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament that he was leaving after the season to become the new coach at Arizona State.

Schembechler beat him to the punch.

He told Frieder not to bother to come back for the NCAA Tournament. A Wolverine assistant, Steve Fisher, will coach the team, Schembechler told the defector.

Schembechler was the picture of strength as he said in a televised interview:

“No Arizona State coach is going to coach Michigan. I want to make that clear. A Michigan man is going to coach Michigan.”

You can hardly blame Frieder for coveting a job that pays $300,000 a year. But his timing, coming nearly 48 hours before Michigan’s opening-round game against Xavier (Ohio) in the Southeast Regional, doesn’t say much for Frieder. It doesn’t say a whole lot for Arizona State, either.

With one classy move, Schembechler put some desperately needed sanity into college athletics.

Those who know Schembechler are not surprised at the way he handled this situation. One of those is Elliot Uzelac, the Navy football coach. He was on Schembechler’s coaching staff before coming to the Naval Academy.

Schembechler was the speaker at the Navy football banquet Feb. 10. He told the story of a Michigan team a few seasons ago that was not playing up to its potential.

“What’s wrong with this football team?” Schembechler asked his assistants.

They told him there were certain players who were doing a lot of grumbling. One of the chief grumblers was, of all people, the team captain.

Schembechler called the young man in and gave him a lecture about the responsibilities of leadership.

“You’re our leader,” Schembechler said. “If you act this way, how can we expect the rest of the team to act any better?”

Schembechler said that by the time he was finished, the player was near tears. But the message got through. The grumbling stopped, the team won the Big Ten, and Michigan went to the Rose Bowl.

Schembechler thought the story was worth telling at Navy, where not only the athletes but all 4,000 midshipmen are being trained to lead.

Schembechler certainly didn’t acquire principle this week. He has run a successful and clean program throughout his 20 years at Michigan.

He has always been a strong and honest man. We need more people with his sense of what’s right and what’s wrong in college athletics.